Cory Booker To Go On Food Stamps

After a flame war with a Twitter user who calls herself "the enemy of communism and socialism," Newark Mayor Cory Booker challenged her to join him in trying to live on food stamps for one week.

Booker, who’s prolific on Twitter, on Sunday tweeted out a quote from Plutarch: “An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” That set off a wave of discussion, including one tweet asking, “So you want to redistribute wealth???” Another respondent was “Twitwit,” who at one point wrote that “nutrition is not a responsibility of the government.” Booker responded, “We have a shared responsibility that kids go to school nutritionally ready 2 learn.”Booker eventually challenged “Twitwit” to experience what people on food stamps are going through. “Lets you and I try to live on food stamps in New Jersey (high cost of living) and feed a family for a week or month. U game?” After “Twitwit” – the aforementioned Daughter of the American Revolution who identifies as an “Army Veteran, Army Daughter, Army Wife” – said yes, Booker wrote, “We will have to get a referee – DM me your number so we can see if we can work out details.” He also tweeted, “Lets film it and see how we do.”

Booker will take part in a University of Bridgeport program which challenges critics of the food stamp program to try and live on the meager amount given out weekly in the state in which they reside. Reportedly Booker will have to subsist on New Jersey's $35 weekly food stamps allotment. Under the rules, he is not permitted to eat food already in his home.